Modern medical devices, including medical pumps, can be complicated and time-consuming for caregivers to program. Human errors in pump programming and other medication errors can have adverse or even deadly consequences for the patient. The need for an improved graphical interface is critical to maintain efficiency of patient care and to reduce potential clinical errors and thereby improve patient safety. Device interfaces that increase input efficiency and accuracy are critical to improve patient safety and therapy.
One critical need for the patient caregiver is to have a graphical user interface or display that is easy to read. Many graphical user interfaces have a backlight to improve the visualization of the screen during programming and running of the infusion. One drawback for many of these devices is that the backlight is not adjustable. In these devices, the set level of brightness may be too high for clinical care areas that have patients that are sensitive to light, such as neonatal intensive care units. Conversely, the set level of brightness may be too low for areas that have a high level of ambient light such as an operating room or an emergency room.
Some devices may allow adjustment of the backlight brightness level. However, the procedure to adjust the brightness level to suit the user and/or the location is often time consuming and inconvenient, thereby reducing the efficiency of the caregiver.
Another drawback to graphical user interfaces that have backlights is that often the device has a power saving mode that dims the backlight after a predetermined length of time to conserve power and to prevent undue wear and tear on the display hardware. Often the predetermined time is a minute or two, requiring the user to continuously touch the device to brighten the backlight during procedures lasting more than a few minutes. This can be cumbersome and inefficient. Worse, it is distracting and disruptive to the clinical caregiver since it takes the user away from the task at hand and therefore could lead to patient harm.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have a medication management system and a medical device that overcomes these and other disadvantages.
To that end, it is an object of this invention to provide a device where the backlight is configurable based on the clinical care area where the infusion will take place and/or user preferences.
It is another object of this invention to provide a device where the power saving mode is configurable based on the clinical care area.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a method of adjusting the backlight brightness level that is efficient for the user.